


All Still

by laulan



Series: 30-300 [4]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Post-Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-24 09:20:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/632839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laulan/pseuds/laulan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some things are meant to be left alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Still

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of a project where I wrote one 300-word ficlet for each day in September, and this particular one is [Tree's](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanttobeatree) fault. We decided once that the saddest AU ever would be if the Avengers accidentally caused a zombie apocalypse while trying to resurrect the character who dies in the movie. I told her, “NO, THIS IS TOO SAD, IT’S NOT ALLOWED!” and then I wrote some of it. Oops.

The worst thing is the quiet.

New York City should be loud. People should be talking, yelling, laughing; music should be flaring around corners and up alleyways. Taxi drivers should argue. High heels should clack on pavement. The city itself should hum, too, with the constant heartbeat of a purely electronic organism. Something should always be awake in a city, alive, _extant._

_Something is alive,_ Bruce reminds himself, out the window. _Or close to it, anyway._

It’s almost sunset, when they’ll wake.

The thought rattles inside his brain. He wishes he could sleep. He can’t even remember how long he’s been up for--thirty hours? Fifty?--but there’s work to be done, so much work, and no time for sleep. He’ll have coffee again instead.

He finds Steve sitting out on the balcony, his sketchbook abandoned beside him. The lines on his face are deeper than they were months ago. Bruce sits down next to him. They watch the sunset highlight the standing skyscrapers in gold for a while without speaking.

“Where’s Tony?” he asks finally. His voice is dry, unused.

Steve shrugs. “Supply run,” he says. His eyes fall shut, like the reply is too heavy to stand.

“And Thor?”

Another shrug. “Asgard, I think. Asking his dad for help again.”

“Ah.” Bruce bites his lip, but forces himself to ask. “Any word from Hill or Fury?”

Steve bows his head. That’s answer enough.

Down below, he can hear the rustling as they wake. Hawkeye and Black Widow are on guard duty tonight. An arrow whistles in the twilight, then more.

“We never should have done it,” Steve says. His voice is worn right through. “We should have left well enough alone. Trying to bring him back... ”

The words hang in the air between them.

“I know,” Bruce says.


End file.
